Monday, 10 March 2014

BENEFITS REFUSALS DRIVING FOODBANK USE IN THE EAST

Shocking increase in "adverse decisions" under coalition

The number of people in the east of England having their applications for benefits rejected has soared under the coalition government.

The Green Party believes this is one of the primary causes of the increased use of foodbanks. A Parliamentary select committee came to the same conclusion in January and called for an enquiry into inappropriate sanctions being imposed on claimants by Jobcentre Plus staff. They said staff should be incentivised to get people into work and not simply off benefits.

Lord Freud, the welfare reform minister, caused controversy when he recently told peers that more people were using the banks because more of them existed, and denied they were even part of the welfare system.

Green Party analysis of figures compiled by the Department for Work and Pensions reveal that "adverse decisions" against claimants for Job Seekers Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance in the east of England leapt from 19,000 to almost thirty thousand between 2008 and 2009. According to figures published on February 19th, by last year that number had doubled again to nearly sixty two thousand.

Rupert Read, Green Party lead candidate in the east at the May Euro-elections said:

"The Conservatives' reputation as the nasty party is underlined by the way in which they seem to be forcing people off social security in order to save petty sums of money and thus sending them into the arms of a network of charitable foodbanks that are struggling to cope.

"Wouldn't it be wonderful if the Government could instead target the tens of billions that are being ripped off us all by a tiny minority of bankers and tax-evaders? That's what the Greens will focus on, when we come to power."

The number of people in the east of England having their applications for benefits rejected has soared under the coalition government.

The Green Party believes this is one of the primary causes of the increased use of foodbanks. A Parliamentary select committee came to the same conclusion in January and called for an enquiry into inappropriate sanctions being imposed on claimants by Jobcentre Plus staff. They said staff should be incentivised to get people into work and not simply off benefits.

Lord Freud, the welfare reform minister, caused controversy when he recently told peers that more people were using the banks because more of them existed, and denied they were even part of the welfare system.

Green Party analysis of figures compiled by the Department for Work and Pensions reveal that "adverse decisions" against claimants for Job Seekers Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance in the east of England leapt from 19,000 to almost thirty thousand between 2008 and 2009. According to figures published on February 19th, by last year that number had doubled again to nearly sixty two thousand.

Rupert Read, Green Party lead candidate in the east at the May Euro-elections said:

"The Conservatives' reputation as the nasty party is underlined by the way in which they seem to be forcing people off social security in order to save petty sums of money and thus sending them into the arms of a network of charitable foodbanks that are struggling to cope.

"Wouldn't it be wonderful if the Government could instead target the tens of billions that are being ripped off us all by a tiny minority of bankers and tax-evaders? That's what the Greens will focus on, when we come to power."